Quick: what do you get when you combine a balloon, a set of markers, a little water and my daughter? You get this:

How to make your own colorful pants by E:

Wear light-colored clothing — the lighter, the better.

You’ll need that balloon that you got from a birthday party.

Gather up all your markers that you brought home from school and sit down on the beige carpet in your room.

Start coloring every inch of the balloon while holding it on your lap. Leave nothing the original color.

Take the balloon to the bathroom and wash off the marker in the sink. Dry with hand towel. Go back and start again.

When you finish with your balloon, your pants are automatically finished too! (And bonus: the carpet and towel might be a little more colorful too!)

Did I blanch a little when she showed us her balloon and her colorful pants? Absolutely. It’s a little like watching your husband clad in his brand new white shirt changing the oil in the lawnmower. You’re happy he’s working on it, but why in that shirt?

I realized that adding a splash of color here and there is par for the course with my daughter. She’s yarn bombed her room. Every piece of paper, every poster, every single thing that she can draw on (and some she’s not supposed to — *cough, reading lamp shade, cough*) gets dressed up a little by markers and crayons. A balloon is great, but a balloon that you’ve colored with marker? Fabulous!

We talked a little about making sure our artistic impulses stay on the intended canvas (aka., markers on balloon) rather than spreading out to the rest of the environs (aka, the pants and the carpet). In the end, though, I’m putting my faith in the Laundry Fairy’s ability to use enough pixie dust (read, “color-safe bleach”) to get the pants clean. And if that doesn’t work, well, she’ll grow out of those pants before school starts, I’m sure.